Monday, 12 December 2011

Fans of DOCTOR WHO have been given an early Christmas present this year with the announcement that two episodes of the classic series thought to have been lost forever have been found in Australia.

Coming from the stories Galaxy 4 and The Underwater Menace, starring William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton as the first and second incarnations of the peripatetic Time Lord.

The loss results from the early practice of wiping videotapes to be used again at a time when the idea that fans would want to rewatch this material in their living rooms forever wasn't even considered and videotape was expensive.

Wednesday, 7 December 2011

The Smurfs movie is out this week on DVD and Blu Ray and to mark the occasion the world's largest inflatable smurf was, ahem, inflated near Tower Bridge (just look in the background).

That's not something you see every day and probably a bit of a distraction if you were driving past.

As well as the Smurfs movie, there is a Smurf's Christmas Carol DVD available from selected outlets and what would Christmas be without Charles Dickens classic ghost redemption story? Even if it does feature tiny little blue people.

Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Do we need another version of The Borrowers? Well, we've got one anyway:

"
Arrietty Clock is a head-strong teenage Borrower who is desperate to explore life outside her family home hidden under the floorboards. Her parents, Pod and Homily Clock, are terrified of the world of the ‘Human Beans’ and are fiercely protective of their daughter.

Arrietty sneaks upstairs one night and befriends James, a lonely boy who lives above her in the house with his father, Robert Millman. This leads to a world of trouble when the Borrowers’ home is discovered by James’s formidable grandmother, and they are forced to venture into the big wide world…

Grandma Driver knows the ‘little people’ exist; she’s always known and is determined to hunt them out of her house. Professor Mildeye also knows of the existence of the ‘little people’. Determined to restore his reputation and resurrect his academic career, he’ll go to any lengths to capture them and reveal them to the world.

Spiller, a leather jacketed tearaway, takes quite a shine to Arrietty. She’s not quite sure what to make of this, but when her parents are captured by the evil Professor Mildeye, she is forced to enlist both Spiller’s and 'human bean' James’s help. They go on a series of daring adventures to try and outsmart Mildeye and return the Clock family to their former home in time for Christmas.

Arrietty Clock is played by Aisling Loftus, Pod Clock by Christopher Eccleston, Homily Clock by Sharon Horgan, James by Charles Hiscock, Robert Millman by Shaun Dooley, Granny Driver by Victoria Wood, Professor Mildeye by Stephen Fry and Spiller by Robert Sheehan. "

"Starring Eddie Izzard, with Jason Flemyng, Geoffrey Palmer and Larry Mills, this CBBC family drama is an urban fairytale from the backstreets of Manchester.

It is Christmas Eve and everyone is getting ready for the big day; everyone that is, except for Anthony, a strange, enigmatic being who wakes up in the street, not knowing where he is or what he’s here to do. But Anthony has a remarkable ability: the power to find the lost.

The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe is the title of the upcoming Christmas Special and the BBC mediacentre website has this introduction from Steven Moffat:

"The Doctor at Christmas - it always just feels so right. When I was a kid, Santa and the Doctor somehow lived in the same place in my head - two generous madmen that I loved so much. So now that the Doctor is a regular feature of Christmas the world is just that bit more right.

"This time we're in England in the 1940s, and recently widowed Madge Arwell hasn't told her children, Lily and Cyril, that their father has died flying his bomber home over the channel, because she doesn't want Christmas to become the day that broke their hearts.

"But when they're evacuated to a draughty old house in Dorset for the holidays, and meet a mysterious young caretaker in a bow tie, events take an unexpected turn. What could be inside that big blue parcel under the tree?

"Soon the Arwells find themselves in a battle for survival in a magical new land. As ever, at this time of year, the Doctor is trying to make things right, and as always it doesn't go according to plan. But maybe he's reckoned without the power of a determined mother.

"This Christmas, it might just be the lonely Time Lord who's shown the way home."

About Me

I am English, mid forties and a recent widower with two children and no time to, well pretty much anything these days.
More pertinently, I write and the fruits of these labours are available as ebooks on the likes of amazon, ibooks, smashwords and lulu.com
My main area of interest is science fiction and fantasy with a side order of supernatural horror. That's what I watch and read and write. I am a geek and proud of it. In fact, I also run a website called the Sci Fi Freak Site reviewing genre TV shows (it being pretty hard to get to the cinema any more).
I am also a regular contributor (some might say heckler) of the kindle forum on amazon.co.uk. It was there that it was suggested that every writer must have a blog, so here it is.
Blame them.